Unforgiving Forgotten
by LunarSkye
Summary: Ever felt that after going through so much with someone, you still end up going through so much pain? What was the point of it? Having that person as a close friend, or what you thought was something more, just sucks in the end when it's over.


…I was walking along, without much thought of anything going on around me. I was deep in thought of a certain personal problem of mines. As I walked along the sidewalk on a lonely street, I happened to glace up. It was about after lunchtime, so I could see pretty clearly, although halfway through December, so it was pretty chilly. But as I looked up, I saw I wasn't alone on the street. There was what looked like a large figure supporting a smaller one. As I walked closer, I saw it was an adult, helping a girl about my age walk. She looked about my age, but she didn't look...normal. For one thing, she was walking around in a nightgown. She walked sort of crooked. Then I figured she must have had a mental disability, although I'm not sure how I guessed that. She seemed to look about everywhere...But I didn't know her, so I kept walking along, trying to focus on my problem again. Yet, as I was passing by the girl, she somehow called to me. "...J..J-Joey.." I stopped walking, and turned around to face her. She seemed familiar in the strangest way. Too strange, I figured, but then how did she know me? She stared back at me, her soft blue eyes seemingly trying to read my mind through my own eyes. The creepy thing was, she never left her gaze. Staring into my eyes...staring...Then I noticed that the adult was looking at me too, as if I'd just performed a miracle. "Hey you, do you know her?" I looked up to the adult. There was a resemblance between the two, I saw. "No, I, I'm pretty sure I don't know her," I responded. The girl was still staring. Then it looked like she tried to speak again. "J...J-Jo.." Then, even though her face had been emotionless the whole time, she seemed sad. "Hey how do you know my name?" I asked. She kept staring. God it was creepy. The adult looked at the girl, and back to me. "Joey? I'm not sure how she knows you. But, ever since her accident, she hasn't spoken a word. Now I'm curious just how the first word she says is your name. Can you come with me to her hospital? Maybe we can figure this out." I was about to say no, but then I saw the girl again. Holy shit, the glare was even harder than before. She seemed to know I would decline this offer, and looked even sadder. Her emotions, I saw, could be seen from her eyes, since her face seemed to hold no emotions of its own. "Uh..Sure I'll come..."

As we entered into her hospital bedroom, I saw a nurse already there. "How did your walk g- Oh! I see Madison has a friend over! And your name is?" Whoa. Madison? That name struck pretty close to home. Long personal story, though. "I'm Joey." As Madison got into her bed, the adult turned to face me. Thanks for coming. I'm Madison's mother, and this is Madison. You see, a year and a half ago, we were in a car accident. No one died, but Madison was in the front seat, and her air bag malfunctioned. She wasn't tall enough for a full-face impact with the glass. But her head was smashed into the glove compartment. It was closed, thank god, but after she was hospitalized, without many other injuries, we were told she would live with a disorder for her life." Madison's mother looked at Madison, who was already fast asleep in bed. "She can think only slightly normally, but she wouldn't be able to speak clearly. Also, emotions and facial expressions don't come out well." I was starting to feel sorry for this stranger. "So, how old is she?" I asked. Her mother never looked away from her daughter. "She's fourteen now. She'll be fifteen next year." Oh good, I thought to myself. I was fifteen, in grade ten. There was no way it was the Madison I used to know...right...?

"She was such a sweet child," her mother carried on, "And so smart too. She had skipped grade four. Not many children can do that!" I instantly got a pang of confusion in my chest. "I'm so sorry..." I said, not knowing what else to say. But I needed to check something now. I walked around her room, looking for her full name. I found a clipboard on a trolley, and looked at the patient's name. Madison...Taylor. Oh hell no...It WAS the Madison I had known in grade five. The first girl I had liked...yes, even at that young age of ten. No wonder she had known my name. But then there was a new problem; how did she talk? After a few attempts of trying to comfort Madison's mother, I went home, promising to return tomorrow.

That night, I laid on my bed, with my stereo playing. How screwed up could my life get...? _"I will wait for you," she said, endlessly. "I will wait for you," so spoke, Misery..._ I threw my pillow at the stereo, hitting the large switch and turning it off. The irony was clear enough; I didn't need the song to rub it in. So much for AFI.

The next day, I went to the hospital. Her mother was already there...or had she been there the whole night? "I was looking through her photos. I see you were in her grade five class! There it is, Joey Wheeler! It looks like you, too!" I was lost at what she was talking about, until I figured she meant the grade five class photo. "Oh..Really..." I said. "I also got a picture of you and Madison! You two were good friends back then, weren't you! This picture is so cute!" She gave me a photo of two little kids. I remembered this one. There was a boy with short brown hair, pushing a girl on a swing with long black hair. They were both smiling, and laughing. If only I knew then that I'd grow up with longer brown hair that gets in my eyes. I smiled looking at it. "You can keep that photograph. Oh, and you can keep this too! It's a picture of when she was thirteen. It was actually two days...before the..ehh..." Madison's mother looked like she'd hit a blank. I looked at the picture. It was a picture of a girl with black hair, smiling in the sun. I looked at the picture, and then at the newer 'version' of her in bed. It hardly seemed possible that such a cute girl in the picture could be a mess in only one and a half years. Sure, the resemblance was there, but...Such a cute girl! I put the picture in my pocket, and walked up to the bed. She was fast asleep. Her mother then seemed to escape her blank trance, and got up. "I'll give you some alone time", she said, and quickly left. Well, without much of a choice in there, I kneeled down and looked at her again, this time closer up. Suddenly, she jerked her head to my direction and opened her eyes. It was so sudden, that I jerked back and fell. Her eyes said she found this funny. But the thing was, she looked like that thing from the Ring, the little girl that drowns people or whatever. Shit...scary... I guessed she couldn't smile or nod or anything like that, though. I would have to speak through her eyes. "So, Madison, how's l- how's it going?" I asked. I was about to ask, How's life? as I usually do, but I didn't think it was appropriate in this case. Her eyes said she was happy for me to be here.

I kept this up for another while. I would visit her, and we'd have conversations, only she would speak to me through her eyes. But more progress was actually made two weeks later. I was leaving for the night, when she stopped me. With a word. As I was at the door, she said: "G...g-g" I turned around. She was struggling with a word. Goodbye? "G-g.." She looked sad. "G..goodnight..." I smiled. "Good night, Madison." She looked very happy, and then she covered in her blanket. I left.

The next day, in the hallway outside Madison's room, I saw a very professional-looking doctor with Madison's mother. They seemed to be arguing. "No, there's no way..!" "Mrs. Taylor, Our video shows that she's making progress in her learning! Why, just last night she said good night! You saw the video!" "Lying bastard that was Joey who helped her! Get out of my daughter's room, now!" The doctor left, giving me a very, VERY cold look. I walked up to Madison's mother. They weren't in her room at all...why did she say...never mind. "What was that about?" I asked. "The doctor wants to run some tests on her. They're sapping all our money from us! And so far they've made no progress on their therapies and medications!" This looked like it was going to be a problem. And with a camera in the room, there wouldn't be any privacy. I hoped Madison didn't find out or she would be upset. I think she enjoyed our talks, since I would speak slower than those uncaring nurses and doctors. But then I realized, if the doctors saw me getting in the way of their money-making scams, they could seriously ban me from the hospital wards...

I went into her room after that. She got up and looked at me happily. I knew that lying in bed for her was not doing anything. I would have to try and help her out. So, after I talked with her, I went to the main office for a talk with the head doctor of her ward. Three long, painful, humiliating hours later, I lost. They wouldn't let Madison out. It was now January, and I had only gotten another one word out.

School started the next day. I met my friend at the door there, Seth. "Hey, Joey! How's it hangin'?" Because he's like that. All street, and all talk. "Err I'm fine, dude," I lied, because Seth wasn't really into the kind of stories, such as the one I was in. But I wasn't really interested in Seth right now. I really needed someone that could…comfort me. So, I looked for my friend Kari. I found her looking at the drama board. She turned around, filled with pure joy. "JOEY! Guess what! I made the play! Remember I was telling…hey what's wrong…?" she asked, interrupting her joyful ranting as she saw me depressed. Since there was another fifteen minutes until the first period bell rang, I told her all about Madison. Kari listened patiently, which was something I liked about her. She would listen well to something you have to say, and then try to help you out. We had been friends since grade seven, but in grade nine, for some reason, I started…liking her…more. It's really confusing, but the fact is, that now I'm not sure who I really loved – Kari, my best friend since grade seven, or Madison, my best (and, sadly, only) friend in grade five. Who was gone for four years and then stumbles into my life. Talk about distressing.

After I told Kari my story, she seemed to think over it. Now, of course I didn't tell her about how I liked both of them. Not the time for that. "I think what you're doing is wonderful for your friend. But those doctors should let her go, really. Tell you what, on Friday after school, I'll try to help you out with getting Madison out of the hospital. Alright?" Now, if a normal person had offered, that wouldn't be much. But Kari was trained by her parents, who were lawyers. Yes, trained – she was forced. But hey, it was certainly helpful.

That Friday afternoon, Kari, Mrs. Taylor and I went to the head office of the hospital to try again. As we entered the head office, we were brief and straight to the point. Wait…no, Kari was brief and strict. Mrs. Taylor and I just watched. It was rather amusing watching a very important person get dissed up so badly by a teenager. In under an hour, Madison was allowed to leave freely. (As soon as Kari mentioned the word 'sue', the head gave in). So then, another problem was avoided – the leeching doctors.

Two weeks later, I visited Madison at her house. She was in her bedroom, but she was looking a lot more cleaner, out of those ugly hospital clothes and into some real…er…pyjamas. She still spent her time in her bedroom. Although, every Sunday, I would walk Madison out into the park, and we would have our lunch in the Tim Horton's nearby. Weeks passed. Then the third breakthrough occurred.

Again, I was ready to leave her at night. It was around February. As I left her room, she called to me. "J-Joey…G-g…" I turned around and walked back into her room. "Good night, Madison." But she wasn't done. "Goodnight…K-k…" I felt my cheeks get warm. I was blushing pretty badly, I could guess. Because I was pretty sure what was coming. "Goodnight kiss Joey?" Great. I walked up to Madison, who was tucked into bed and waiting for a kiss. Not my kind of thing to do, but I kissed her on the forehead. "Good night, Madison." Then she smiled, for the first time. I smiled back. "You're beautiful when you smile, Madison." Then, her third breakthrough that night: "Thank you Joey." I left the house. It was dark, as I walked home. I was going to soap my mouth as soon as I got home. Since when do I call people beautiful?

It was around April, when the Miracle occurred. I was helping Mrs. Taylor wash the dishes while she was out. Madison sat on the counter nearby, watching me with profound interest. She got up, and…I think she wanted to help. She picked up the closest object – A knife. But, as you might have guessed; she dropped the knife. Luckily, I caught it before it fell on my foot, narrowly saving my toes. As soon as I caught it though, Madison broke through: "Oh my gosh I'm so sorry Joey!" I stared at her, with the knife in my hands. I'm pretty sure my mouth was slightly open, too…and the knife dropped again but I took no notice of it. "S-Madison?" "Oh my gosh I can talk again…" she said. It was surely a miracle. She smiled, and I finally saw some emotion in her. She enthusiastically hugged me (with me flinching – I'm not a hugging person).

So that's the story of Madison, and how she was healed. Or saved. Madison's story. But that's not totally all of My story.

We spent the next few months together. One day in July, Kari invited me and Madison to a little party. She said there wasn't really a reason for the party, just to chill out. So, as we entered Kari's house, we were both greeted by about a dozen of Kari's friends. Throughout the party, everyone kept asking Madison about how and what she went though. How they knew about it, I had no clue. I soon saw Kari missing. But then, I figured I couldn't take the cramped-up house, and I had to get out. Once I was outside, I walked to the side of the road and sat on the curb. To my surprise, Kari sat there. "Hey Joey…Whatcha doin' out here?" "Ha…I could ask you the same question…" But we quietly settled on silence. As we sat there in silence though, the door opened. Madison leaned out. "Joey! You out there?" I gave her a minute, then she gave up. Kari looked at me funny. "Why didn't you say anything?" But I think we both knew not to spoil a good thing if it came.

A week later, I walked into Madison's room. To my surprise, another guy was there, about a year or two older, I guess. He was talking quietly to Madison. As they saw me, though, they turned to me. "Hey Madison, who's this?" I asked, smiling at them. "Oh! I'm so stupid," said Madison, "Joey, meet my boyfriend, Blair!" It suddenly turned confusing for me. I burst out of the room, and ran home. I laid on my bed until night came, staying perfectly still. Then a song came on the radio. _I Gave my life to save her…The ocean turned to red…_ I threw a pillow at it, but instead of shutting off, it changed stations. _Why would she put me, through such torture? I would have given my life for her. She was the one that knocked me over, Now I'm alone, sitting on the corner…_I got up and seriously punched the crap out of the radio. Stupid Billy Talent mocking me. I needed somewhere to go, I realized.

I found myself at Kari's house. I told her everything…and I mean, _everything_. How I liked her, but I thought I liked Madison…And how confused I was. But she did only the simplest thing. She hugged me, and said, "Don't worry, Joey. I'm still here for you."

_Joey never spoke to Madison again. Two years later, Madison died from brain damage. It was said that her disorder hadn't totally been cured. Only two people showed up for her funeral, though; Her mother and Joey. Blair didn't. And so, is Joey's story. I'm not about to say who I am, although I think Joey may have mentioned me in his story. I think the moral of this story is; you should know who cares for you the most. And they will always be false leads, yet just remember who actually counts._

_Song lyrics…--_

_AFI – Endlessly, she said_

_Billy Talent – The Navy Song_

_Billy Talent – The Ex_


End file.
